These beautiful garden paintings were created by my first graders. Everyone had great success, simply by following along, step by step, while adding their own touches. This project also combines several painting techniques, so students get an introduction to various painting media and experiences.

Materials:12" X 18" white construction paper (I also like to cut the paper to 10" X 16" so I can mount them to a colored background), pencils, tempera paint in the following colors: yellow, green, blue, red, orange, yellow, pink, violet, brown, and white, acrylic paint in the following colors: blue, white, greens, white, pink, and yellow, blue watercolor, tempera and watercolor brushes, small sponge piecesArt History:Show the students various visuals, posters, and books about the artist Claude Monet. Here is a good site that shows his gardens: Monet's Garden at Giverny

I also show them this video:

They LOVE this video and I highly recommend it! It tells the story of a li…

Can you guess what is going on in the photo above? I am recycling old dried out markers to make liquid watercolor! And look how gorgeous it turns out:

To do this, all you have to do is soak your old markers, head down, in a cup of water. I left these over the weekend and they are nice and bright. I had some old gel markers and they worked really well. I especially liked the white gel markers mixed with the purple and blue to make a cornflower blue. Have fun, experiment, save money, and recycle all at the same time!

Step 2: Discuss warm and cool colors. I have my students play a sorting game where they separate colored rectangles in to warm (like fire) and cool (like water) piles. They will choose either a warm or cool color scheme for their skies, as seen below.